2012/2013 Beach and Yacht FAQ- Closing Soon- New Thread Started- Don't Post Here

[DisneyMomx7]

Teena - Welcome Back! Can't wait to hear all about your trip.

NinjaMom - your trip is getting close - have a magical trip!!!

[TeenaS]

Originally Posted by DisneyMomx7

Teena - Welcome Back! Can't wait to hear all about your trip.

NinjaMom - your trip is getting close - have a magical trip!!!

We had a wonderful time. Probably worst weather we've ever had on a cruise though. Hardly any sun at all. Seas were very calm though. There was some sun the morning at Castaway but it was cold (high 60's, low 70's) with pretty good wind so we only walked around and had lunch there. I never expect to actually have a "beach" day at Castaway from mid-November through the end of March. A beach day to me means when you sit on the beach you get so hot you need to be in the water most of the time and the water doesn't turn you purple. The Bahamas are so far north compared to the Caribbean that I never plan on our winter Disney cruises being good Castaway "beach" days.

Our brunch at Palo was, as usual, the highlight of our cruise.

We just relaxed, actually more like collapsed, ate, read and enjoyed the beautiful ship!! This will probably be our last Disney Western Caribbean. Costa Maya is a total waste of time and Cozumel has gotten so bad that there is no reason to go ashore ... JMO of course. I'm sure if you spend the money and do an excursion you might enjoy it but people I talked to that went to the beach in Costa Maya said it was horrible and the "ruins" were nothing worth seeing. When you get off the ship it's a bunch of cheap t-shirt places and cops with machine guns ... yep, real machine guns. The good stores in Cozumel are all gone. I remember the days of Venetian, Milano, Effy, etc. And the friends we were with ... Lois and I were walking ahead of Bob and Fred. You couldn't tell the men were really with us. A man actually grabbed Lois' arm and tried to pull her into a store. Grand Cayman is still a really nice place to go but the two Mexican stops ruin it. I wish they would get rid of Mexico (both stops) altogether and just go to Grand Cayman, Castaway Cay of course and a day in Belize. We loved Belize when we were there last year on Celebrity. So I think we'll be sticking with Eastern Caribbean on Disney. Pretty much everybody I talked to on the cruise said Cozumel has really changed and they were in no hurry to ever come back and said Costa Mayo was worthless as a stop.

Food and service was excellent on the Fantasy as usual!!!!

The holiday decorations were fantastic ... understated but soooo beautiful!

[natebenma]

This bar server during one of the shows is dressed for cool weather. They are forecasting a cold spell at sea the next day- 87 degrees



Artist Palette






Tender to Grand Cayman:




Castaway Cay:





Bye Bye, Castaway! Until next time...

[Sue M]

Great Pics Teena! Sorry to hear about Cozumel. I was there many years ago on a Princess Cruise, and really enjoyed Cozumel. Too bad it's changed. And I walked around alone, while my mom was at the ruins. Wasn't a problem back then. Maybe 20 yrs ago?

[Sue M]

Originally Posted by Amommy21

It is hot hot hot! High 70's

We are from the northwest and that's August summer... We are dying. And I am frustrated by the lack of a/c.

Disney LAND is our home park and every building feels so cool and refreshing. Here some of the buildings are hotter than outside.

But there are people with Christmas sweaters.

We brought sweatshirts but haven't even bothered to being them with us even at night.

We are from the NW too and love temps in the 70's Can't wait for our January trip!

[creativeamanda]

Teena, those are awesome pictures!

[DrMomof3]

Lovely pictures Teena! Sorry the Ports weren't better but it sounds like you had a great cruise anyway!

Amanda

[Amommy21]

So if you stay at beach club how do you do Epcot? All in one day? Pop over a couple times during your stay? Both trips here now it's overwhwing and that's even with skipping tons of stuff...

[MickeyT]

Originally Posted by Amommy21

So if you stay at beach club how do you do Epcot? All in one day? Pop over a couple times during your stay? Both trips here now it's overwhwing and that's even with skipping tons of stuff...

We usually do one early morning rope drop and one late evening. Then throw in a couple quick trips for mid day CS meals. We have left DHS and went over to EPCOT just for lunch,

[DrMomof3]

Originally Posted by Amommy21

So if you stay at beach club how do you do Epcot? All in one day? Pop over a couple times during your stay? Both trips here now it's overwhwing and that's even with skipping tons of stuff...

We usually do at least one full day and then eat many, if not all, of our dinners in Epcot.

Amanda

[Ninja Mom]

Originally Posted by Amommy21

So if you stay at beach club how do you do Epcot? All in one day? Pop over a couple times during your stay? Both trips here now it's overwhwing and that's even with skipping tons of stuff...

Remember, WDW parks have been around for many years and they aren't closing in the foreseeable future. Before a trip we all sit down after going to the WDW parks site and checking out the attractions. Next we develop a list of what each person in the family wants to see. We separate it out by park. We use that as our touring plan so that each person is happy and they get to do what they wanted the most. There is always overlap with more than one person wanting to do the same thing so it's mostly a win win for everybody. Anything we don't get to do we make a priority for the next trip. I tell the kids that if something is closed when we go that it will be open for the next trip.

Try to relax and not stress out. I know it's a lot of money to get to the parks and there is no way you can do it all. Just pick your priorities and take it easy and enjoy!

Good luck!
~NM

[Wood Nymph]

Originally Posted by Amommy21

So if you stay at beach club how do you do Epcot? All in one day? Pop over a couple times during your stay? Both trips here now it's overwhelming and that's even with skipping tons of stuff...

We usually do Epcot in the late afternoon after a nice afternoon napping or swimming. Future World usually has very short lines in late afternoon and evening. It is a good place for dinner, too.

We also go to Epcot after spending the morning at MK. We take the monorail from MK and walk through Epcot's World Showcase on the way back to the BC.

The nicest part of staying at the BC is being able to go into Epcot often.

[Steph H]

Hi, all!! We are here! I can't believe that we got in at 11am and managed to do TWO parks today! *thud* Considering I only got three hours sleep last night, you can imagine how exhausted I am. My boys, on the other hand, would still be at MK if I'd let them.

We checked in around 12:30 and our experience was wonderful. We were greeted at the entrance and whisked right up to the 5th floor, where Robin took great care of us. Our room is awesome!! I'm pretty positive we were upgraded, because I reserved Garden View, but we have a wonderful view of the lake and the Boardwalk across the way, and we can see parts of SAB, too. Love it!! Plus, we have a room with I believe is a daybed. this THRILLED my boys, who are ecstatic to not have to share a bed. I wish I could get pictures up, but my mind is mush right now. I'll try tomorrow.

The bottom line is we LOVE our room! It feels so nice and roomy...not cramped at all. The offerings for evening club level appetizers, etc. were delicious as well. Everything has just been top notch. We even had Pixie Dust when we went to Epcot at 2pm: as we were walking up to have our cards scanned at the International Gateway, a stranger walked up to me and said, "Excuse me. We have four fast passes for Soarin' with a return from 2-3pm. Would you like them?" Well golly, yes, thank you! We even had time for a quick snack in Mexico and then made it to the ride with 10 minutes to spare. It was the first time riding for any of us!

Ok, I'm done for the night, folks. I'll try to be more perky tomorrow, with pictures. We just got back to room so I'm going to hit the sack. It amazes me how coming back to the YC from MK tonight really did feel like "coming home."

[catho72]

Originally Posted by Steph H

Hi, all!! We are here! I can't believe that we got in at 11am and managed to do TWO parks today! *thud* Considering I only got three hours sleep last night, you can imagine how exhausted I am. My boys, on the other hand, would still be at MK if I'd let them.

We checked in around 12:30 and our experience was wonderful. We were greeted at the entrance and whisked right up to the 5th floor, where Robin took great care of us. Our room is awesome!! I'm pretty positive we were upgraded, because I reserved Garden View, but we have a wonderful view of the lake and the Boardwalk across the way, and we can see parts of SAB, too. Love it!! Plus, we have a room with I believe is a daybed. this THRILLED my boys, who are ecstatic to not have to share a bed. I wish I could get pictures up, but my mind is mush right now. I'll try tomorrow.

The bottom line is we LOVE our room! It feels so nice and roomy...not cramped at all. The offerings for evening club level appetizers, etc. were delicious as well. Everything has just been top notch. We even had Pixie Dust when we went to Epcot at 2pm: as we were walking up to have our cards scanned at the International Gateway, a stranger walked up to me and said, "Excuse me. We have four fast passes for Soarin' with a return from 2-3pm. Would you like them?" Well golly, yes, thank you! We even had time for a quick snack in Mexico and then made it to the ride with 10 minutes to spare. It was the first time riding for any of us!

Ok, I'm done for the night, folks. I'll try to be more perky tomorrow, with pictures. We just got back to room so I'm going to hit the sack. It amazes me how coming back to the YC from MK tonight really did feel like "coming home."

Wow! Thanks for posting. I love reading "I'm there now" reports. Receiving those Soarin' FP's is Disney Magic at its best!

Get a good night's sleep tonight! Can't wait to read your next live report!

[Amommy21]

Since we live in Seattle it is more once or twice in a lifetime for us. But we knew this 6 day trip would be like a marathon since the two end days were mostly travel.

But here's the thing - you can do it all in Disneyland. There are more attractions in DCA and Disneyland than all of WDW put together. You can park hop the best of in one day or do everything, with your favorites multiple times in 3 days without sweating it. We aren't total commando ... We change plans, even start out late sometimes but we average 18-24 attractions on an average day including special meals and characters. 5 days you can be lazy, go to the beach for an afternoon etc.

Our first trip to WDW we were here a week and DS was 2 1/2. We went swimming two days in the afternoon. We didn't baby swap because we were concentrating on his experience, but sid on major rides or ones we didn't have in Disneyland and were pretty overwhelmed as we just couldn't fit it all in.

So this time I was hoping The Beach Clun being close to two parks would give is more of that California Grand feeling... The hotel is cute rooms are clean pool great... But the beach club itself, nothing special. No special merchandise, crowded lobby... Our housekeeping service is lacking. And our fist night in it was a fiasco to eat dinner. Who knew eating at your resort would be such a pain... But that's another story that I won't get into.

We did upgrade our annual passes to premiere passes to both parks and were taking about coming back in February. But after today I am wondering if California, although we have been on extended stays twice this year would be more fun, relaxing and feel like a Vacation. I am just beat.... And feel like every day is a marathon even though we didn't make rope drop.

Today we did
Epcot: (16 Attractions)
1. 10am: get FP to soaring; ride Mission: Space
2. Spaceship Earth
3. Sum of all thrlls
4. Photo pass family photo in front of the gold ball
5. Character pictures (mickey, Minnie)
6. Seas with Nemo and Friends
7. Soarin
8. The land
9. Friendship Boat to morocco
10. 2:30) Teppan Edo
11. 5pm: Candlelight Processional
12. Skipped 45 min Santa Line looked at some America stuff
13. China (watched circle movie)
14. Germany (no hummels!!!)
15. Norway (Maelstrom + movie)
16. Mexico (gran fiesta ride)
17. 8:30 Preferred Seating Illuminations

Would you consider this a big day, or a small day? Dh felt like we missed 1/2 the park... And we did.

The day did end on a good note. When we arrived at our room there was a surprise set up for Glen and Sylvia ... We are not glen and Sylvia... But enjoyed their cheese and fruit platter after calling room service to inform them about the error and being told to enjoy the goodies...I hope they are having a wonderful anniversary!